Inside
by Nadare
Summary: "You can't rely on suppressants anymore. You have to do this." After turning 18 years old, Sally Marcinko, a Spinnetod Wesen, must begin the molting process, which means she must kill, whether she likes it or not. Written for Goretober 2019.


_A/N: Because my mind wondered how Lena's daughter would have handled the situation when her time came._

[Written on and off from 9-19-19 to 10-8-19]

Prompts: Web, Midnight, Dark, Abomination, Bound, Demon, and Grave.

**Tags:** Spinnetod, First Kill, Coming of Age, Blood and Gore, Canon-Typical Violence, Spiders, Spider Biology, Murder, Don't Read If You Have Arachnophobia, Family Bonding, Goretober, Dubious Morality, Tarantella Episode Sequel, Horror.

* * *

"_**Inside"**_

"I can't do this," Sally said, sitting in the passenger seat of the rental car.

Her dad Robert touched her shoulder gently. "Sure you can, honey."

Sally shook her head. "I can't." Her hands rested in her lap, Sally nervously twisting the ring on her pinky finger. She was faintly sick to her stomach, anxious about what came next in their plan.

A look of empathy passed over her dad's face as he leaned closer to her. "But you can't rely on suppressants anymore. You **have** to do this." Robert sighed. "However, unlike your mom who tried to go it alone, I'll be here to help you. So remember that, okay?"

Sally took a deep breath, steadying herself. "I know, I know." She stopped spinning her pinky ring. "Step one: find a victim. Preferably an asshole."

Robert smiled, his hand dropping from her shoulder. "That's right, you've got this."

She responded in kind, glad her dad was here, then opened the car door. Sally slipped off the seat before checking herself over to make sure the long ride to the bar hadn't damaged her carefully put-together disguise.

It'd been two years since her mom Lena had been imprisoned. In that time, she and her dad had moved away from Oregon, settling closer to Sally's grandparents who lived in South Dakota. New school and new friends, an entirely fresh start thanks to her mom's mistakes.

They still drove back to Portland every month to visit, but seeing her mom slowly succumb to such aggressive aging was always a disheartening sight. She seemed so fragile and resigned to her fate. If only the stupid Grimm had been five minutes later in his dogged pursuit.

Thankfully, Sally's grandmother, Daphne, sensing how close she was to maturation, had taught Sally a few tricks. Together, they'd been able to stave _le retour d'age_ off until her 18th birthday came around, at which point they couldn't hold the process back any longer.

Still, Sally wasn't without hope. Grandma had been full of tips on how to ease the whole process and given she'd done it her whole life until the threat of old age wasn't threatening, Sally had taken the lessons to heart.

The walk to the club at the end of the street was short, Sally stopping outside of it to take in the blazing neon sign stationed overhead. Even from outside, she could hear the music within, a deep driving bass beat that seemed to vibrate the ground beneath her feet.

"Right, no more stalling," Sally declared before taking the staircase down to the main entrance. The cover charge paid, the burly bouncer at the door stood aside to let her into the club.

The place was loud, assaulting Sally's eardrums as she entered the club, the music and conversation high. The main attraction of the place was clearly the dance floor, a large multicolored tiled affair that encompassed most of the room. Tables and chairs lined the edges, the majority taken up with rowdy club-goers out for a good time.

A sleek bar ornately decorated completed the picture, a myriad of colored bottles containing alcohol situated on the wall behind the bar. Swallowing down any lingering nervousness, Sally strode forward, heading to the counter to order a drink.

The short blond wig she wore itched, Sally resisting the temptation to scratch underneath it. She felt strange in her little black dress, the tight piece of cloth barely reaching past her thighs. Having always been a tomboy, exposing so much skin was disconcerting.

If it wasn't a matter of life and death, Sally wouldn't have been able to stand it.

"Shirley Temple, please," she told the bartender, casting her eyes over the throng of people surrounding her. Sally needed to keep a clear head and focus on finding someone who wouldn't be missed that was asking to pay for being a grade-A jerk.

The pink drink placed in front of her was the first step to doing what her biology demanded of her. Sally silently paid for it, then grabbed the glass and began to walk through the crowded dance floor.

Almost immediately, a dark-haired man with blue eyes stumbled towards her, nearly hitting Sally. He righted himself as he chuckled, flashing her an easy smile.

"Sorry, sweetheart," he said loudly, struggling to be heard over the general noise of the techno music.

Sally shook her head. "It's all right. Can I help you get anywhere?" She noted the wedding ring on the hand which was clutching a beer bottle and was ready to write him off as a possibility.

"Into your bed would be great," the man replied smoothly, leaning closer to Sally. She laughed lightly, faking amusement. "I'm Colin and you are?"

"Beth," Sally lied, purposely staying where she was when she really wanted to ditch the whole scene. The fact he was hitting on her while having a significant other at home made him the ideal target.

She hadn't noticed when she first came in, but with all the bodies inhabiting the club, the air was starting to get stuffy, perspiration beading on Sally's brow. She couldn't imagine trying to dance in the place.

"You come here often?" she asked, leading Colin to an empty table to the right that had just opened up.

"When I'm feeling lonely and looking for company, yeah," Colin replied as Sally sipped at her drink, the sweet taste lingering on her tongue. "Never seen you here before though."

Sally put her head to the side. "You might say I've been off the market for a while." Last week she couldn't have gotten into an R-rated movie by herself. Hell, Sally didn't even have her driver's license yet.

"What kind of idiot let a looker like you get away?" Colin said, his hand coming to touch the hand Sally had left lying on top of the table. She winced inwardly, wanting to yank it back from his sweaty grip on instinct alone.

Sally's stomach clenched unpleasantly and she forced herself to relax, using her free hand to touch Colin's forearm lying atop on the table. "You wanna get out of here and go back to my place?"

"What's the hurry, baby?" Colin asked, seeming amused at Sally's impatience.

She stared at him intently, letting a little of her inner need peek out as Sally managed a genuine smile. "Because I just can't wait to sink my teeth in you."

He stupidly beamed at the compliment, not knowing Sally meant the statement literally. Colin pulled his hand back before getting to his feet. "Hell, yeah. I know just how you feel."

"I really doubt it."

Colin scoffed, close on Sally's heels as they left the club, the fresh night air a refreshing balm after enduring so much humanity in close quarters. "Hey, give a guy a chance to prove it, will you?"

* * *

The abandoned warehouse was dark, Colin leaning forward in the driver's seat as he parked his car outside on the street by the curb with a raised eyebrow. "You live **here**?"

Sally smiled, looking over at Colin. "It looks bad from the outside, I know, but they're converting the area into lofts and I'm the first one who gets to move in. Lucky me, huh?"

Colin seemed to decide the idea was plausible and got out of the car, Sally following shortly behind him. There were no surveillance cameras, the closest one a whole block away. It was a perfect place that suited her needs.

Colin stopped by the main entrance, letting Sally come forward and make a show of unlocking it. Earlier, she and her dad had broken the lock mechanism completely so all she had to do was pretend a bit and simply turn the doorknob.

As soon as he stepped through the door into the dark interior of the warehouse, Sally dug into her purse, clutching the pepper spray on the bottom. Her night vision was perfect, able to see Colin as if he was standing in daylight. "Colin?"

He looked back at her, screaming when Sally hit him square in the eyes with the noxious spray. Colin staggered on his feet, cursing a blue streak as he clutched at his upper face, a red rash appearing on the sides of it.

Colin never saw Sally strike, launching herself at him, both of them crashing to the floor. He landed on his back roughly, Sally almost sitting on his lower body.

Her face flushed hotly as Sally's internal nature pushed forward through the skin, clawed hands taking a firm grip on Colin's hair and bashing his head against the floor. He tried to resist her, his arms and legs hitting her sides, but Sally's inhuman strength was greater than his own and it only took two more blows before Colin's eyes shut and he went unconscious at last.

Her heart pounding, Sally stumbled to her feet and turned away from Colin, her nerves getting the better of her again. No, Sally had to keep going. If she stopped, it would all be for nothing.

Beyond a few huge rusting industrial machines leftover from whatever company had tried to make a go of it and failed, Sally found an old metal bed frame in a dusty corner, worn in places but intact where it counted. A thin thready mattress laid upon it. She wondered who'd lived in such a desolate place and what had happened to them.

It seemed to take forever for Sally to drag Colin over to the bed and heave him onto it. The handcuffs from her purse made binding Colin's hands and legs to the ends easy, the man oblivious to his plight.

If there were any other way, Sally would do it, but nature was impossible to resist.

She had to do it now while he was still unconscious. Sally put a hand to her stomach when it cramped violently, a shudder going down her spine as she woged again, her mouth suddenly too small to contain the large fangs that protruded from the roof of her mouth.

Sally straddled Colin's body, positioning her mouth above his own. She dug her fingers into his chin, forcing the mouth open. With a sigh of relief, Sally finally released the torrent of digestive juices that had been building in her gut for days.

Thick and white, it quickly filled Colin's throat, some of it spilling out of his mouth to splatter to the floor where smoke rose anywhere it touched. Sally's victim came to with a violent start and screamed, unknowingly helping her projectile spray invade his system further.

The area on his lower mouth began to burn away, Colin's flesh unable to fight off the heavy acidic onslaught. The sounds he made faded into strangled gurgling noises, the hard metallic rattle of Colin yanking on his restraints falling off eventually.

Colin's midsection began to swell and grow, filling with the melted remnants of his internal organs, the light leaving his eyes, his body going still in death. It made the next gruesome task she faced so much easier on her.

Sally ripped through his shirt and pants, exposing Colin's bare stomach. With barely any hesitation, she sank her fangs deep into it, tasting blood at first, and then a creamy mixture that Sally automatically sucked it up, her eyes closing in bliss at the robust flavor.

It was unlike anything she'd ever had before, both meaty and tangy, yet impossibly sweet. Her grandma had said the _dégueulasse_ sounded worse than it was and she had been right.

The skin surrounding Colin's stomach started to dry out, crackling loudly, progressively spreading upward. Desperately thirsty, relieved the hard knot in her own body was easing, Sally drank her fill and then some, her eyes filling with tears of frustration when nothing further came out of Colin.

A flash of warmth went through Sally as she pulled back, wiping at her chin, her large fangs retreating back the way they had come. She looked down beside her where Colin's body was completely desiccated, contorted into a painful rigor, one of his hands having escaped the handcuffs.

She couldn't help the wetness that ran down her cheeks, crying not because she was upset.

No, Sally had liked it.

The feeling of utter dominance over Colin as she held him down, his struggles reminding her of the way a fly twitched in a spider's web, knowing it couldn't escape its fate but trying anyway. Colin had shown his true self, that of cannon fodder. Sally doubted the world would be any less without him.

He'd served a more noble purpose, though Colin hadn't been aware of it at the time.

Sally knew she should have been more horrified at what she'd just done, but for the first time in weeks, she could breathe easily again without feeling like she was trapped inside a body one size too small for her.

Her gaze fell on the purse she'd left on the floor by the bed and she grabbed her phone from it. Sally dialed her dad's number from memory.

"Dad," she said, standing up from the bed and walking away from Colin's corpse. "Please come get me."

"Is it done, sweetheart?"

Sally nodded, though her dad couldn't see it. "Yeah."

"Good girl," Robert replied, his voice warm and comforting. "Don't worry, I'll be there in five minutes."

That she didn't have to deal with the remains of Colin was a massive relief. Sally wondered if her mom would still be in jail had she and her dad worked together. Wishful thinking and too little, too late.

"Is that everything?" Her dad asked her as Sally walked out of the warehouse for the last time, having changed out of her clubbing outfit into a t-shirt and jeans.

Sally tossed her wig and dress into the fire burning strong inside a barrel standing a few feet away from the rental car. "Yes." Even the contents of Colin's wallet had been added to the inferno.

"Good." Robert placed his arm over Sally's shoulder, pulling her close. The heat from the flames beat at her face as the wind shifted. "After we're done here, it'll be a while until we reach Kansas. Hopefully, we'll make it with plenty of time to find a similar setup to this place."

"Dad." He turned to her curiously. "I love you." Sally squeezed him in a tight hug for a moment, grateful he cared enough about her to insist they see the ordeal through together.

Robert stared at her for a moment, his eyes growing slightly wet. "I love you too."

They stayed there watching the flames until the impromptu fuel that spurred it on was no more, then buried the ashes on the far side of the warehouse lot just to be on the safe side.

Kansas was calling. If everything went well there, Michigan was next.

With any luck, they'd be home in South Dakota before the weekend.

Two more times until Sally's molt was complete.

A surge of pleasure ran up her spine at the thought.

Sally couldn't wait.


End file.
